Investigating the biological significance of metallointercalators with cDNA microarrays

Abstract

The double helix coded sequence of nucleotide bases with its protective sugar phosphate backbone forms deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) which is the genetic blueprint of all living things. All the information required for the development, operation and maintenance of cells is contained in a sequence of adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C) and guanine (G) bases, where adenine is paired with thymine and cytosine is paired with guanine [1]. The DNA sequence is made usable by transcription of the nucleotide sequence into single stranded messenger RNA (mRNA). This means that the four member nucleic acid base code sequence is converted into a 22 member amino acid code [2]